It is based on the popular West End stage comedy by Terrence Rattigan. It all begins when Diana (Ellen Drew), the sister of a British boy studying in France, arrives in town to flirt with all of her brothers' schoolmates. Alan (Ray Milland), one of the students, successfully resists Diana's charms-meaning of course that Alan and Diana will be in each other's arms by fadeout time. (AllMovie)

It all begins with the discreet romance between the Creole maid Lea Mariotte and her young boss, George Brissac, an amoral bourgeois who plans to inherit his uncle's fortune and marry a young woman from a good family. After an incident where she kills a man, she is saved from the gallows by Fabian, a ship's captain, who has personal reasons for antagonizing the Brissacs. He takes care of her and falls in love with her, but doesn't tell her. She, in turn, takes the opportunity to return to her lover Brissac's arms, forcing him to marry her after seeing him murder his uncle.